


family lines

by AnnCherie



Category: Legacies (TV 2018)
Genre: Gen, Stefan POV - Freeform, stefan is alive
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-28
Updated: 2020-07-28
Packaged: 2021-03-06 01:41:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,058
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25565302
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AnnCherie/pseuds/AnnCherie
Summary: drabble collection of Legacies as told by a surviving vampire!Stefan
Relationships: Caroline Forbes/Stefan Salvatore, Hope Mikaelson & Stefan Salvatore, Lizzie Saltzman & Stefan Salvatore
Comments: 8
Kudos: 44





	family lines

**Author's Note:**

> to be quite honest, I've only seen legacies through gifsets and meta on tumblr but my love for steroline and the angry what-ifs about Stefan's death have me here, so buckle up and sorry if the teens are ooc

"Dad number two is requesting you," Lizzie announces, sounding bratty about their step-dad as always despite the underlying affection Josie knew she felt for him. Somewhere between Stefan being able to travel with their mother whenever he wanted and her belief that Josie was his favorite, the blonde had built up walls.

Josie sits up from what had been her shared spot in the common room with Hope and went to the library. 

  
  


* * *

  
  


"Alaric, come on," Stefan argues, frustration growing. "You can't tell me you don't see it. They're growing way too codependent."

"Stop projecting your past with Damon onto my daughters, Stefan," Alaric snaps back. 

It was a petty jab, but it still stung. Biological father or not, he loved the girls more than anything else in his life except for Caroline.

"I'm not projecting and you know it. You're scared just like I am," he replies. "But yeah, if anyone knows toxic sibling codependence here it would be me."

"They're twins. They're fine."

Stefan shakes his head and leaves.

  
  


* * *

  
  


His vampire hearing alerts him to the explosions happening, and he rushes from the library to the kitchen with the speed his species affords him to see Lizzie in crisis. Dishes, glass, wood; everything is spinning in chaos until he grabs her in his arms and holds her tight. 

Everything drops, and he's grateful not to be killed by flying shards of wood.

Lizzie doesn't seem grateful, however, shoving him off of her. "Get out! I don't need you!"

"I know you don't," he tells her, trying not to let the ache in his chest hit too hard at her words. "But I'm here and I love you. Talk to me."

"Like you'd ever understand," she spits at him. "No one does."

"Try me." he tells her. "I may not know exactly how you feel, but I have some experience with uncontrollable emotions."

She glares at him. "This isn't wanting to selfishly kill someone for blood."

"Of course not. Tell me what it  _ is _ ."

"I can't," she huffs, tears welling up larger. "I'm just broken."

"Mental illness doesn't mean you're broken, Lizzie," he responds sincerely, wishing the stubborn and guarded girl would at least let him touch her arm in reassurance. "The depression and anxiety and compounded guilt over feeling depressed and anxious is completely normal."

She scoffs, gesturing at the shattered scene around her. "This is normal? Seriously?" 

"Yes," he soundedly replies, and for once she looks him in the eye with a cracking exterior. "This is more than normal for someone supernatural who only bottles everything up."

"I don't bottle things up," she retorts, but the anger slips.

"You do as much as your mother," he replies with a small laugh, happy when he saw her fighting the quirk of her lips. "You're both way too in love with control."

Giving him a weighted look, she casually shrugs. "You can clean all this up with your vamp speed, right? I'm going to go clean my perfect eyeliner."

He nods. She smiles fully this time. That's the closest he'll get to a thank you, but he doesn’t find himself minding. Every now and then he finds pieces of Damon everywhere. 

  
  
  
  


* * *

  
  
  


"Caroline, don't do this," Stefan pleads with her, shutting the suitcase that she's packing. "They don't need a cure right this second, they need their mom."

She looks up with a raw expression-- guilt, grief, anger-- and scoffs. "I think I know what they need, Stefan. They need a solution to  _ dying _ via  _ murdering _ one or the other."

"So let me search for it!" He exclaims. "It doesn't have to be you. Control isn't worth them not understanding why their mother isn't around."

"How dare you," Caroline growls. "You know how much I love them. You just need another reason to run."

And with that he leaves the room, shaking his head. 

She finds him later, looking remorseful, coming up and slinking her arms around him in an embrace that he forgives. 

"You were right, as usual," she says, her tone uneven and wistful. "I need to be here. Lizzie needs me. I-- I have to get her medicine and counseling. Where the hell do you get a supernatural psychiatrist? How do I know western medicine will even work? Do witches have different brain chemistry, Stefan? I--," 

Interrupting her tears and frantic anxiety attack with a slow kiss, he's glad when she nods. "I'll ask some contacts. You can make lists. She'll be okay."

"How do you know?" Caroline asks, vulnerable in a way he rarely saw anymore with her frequent absence.

"She has an amazing mother," he replies, kissing her forehead.

  
  
  


* * *

  
  
  


"Josie said you knew my dad," Hope asks him one day, the subject finally coming up after years of Stefan expecting it. 

"I did," He nods. "He was a friend to me every now and then."

"You don't have to lie to me," Hope tells him, but she hadn't been able to hold back the quiver in her voice.

Stefan shakes his head and sighs. "I'm not. Back in the 20's-- the  _ nineteen _ -twenties, we were genuinely friends, even if I was a little…  _ different  _ then. He even called me "old friend" repeatedly when we met again eighty years later."

With a small nod, she looks ever so hopeful as she asks, "Did you-- I mean, did you ever have good memories of him? I understand if not, I just--," 

"I understand," he tells her, and he does. Not many could say they had good memories of Damon either, yet Stefan desperately held onto the ones he had. "Your father-- he was passionate in everything he did. Wanted the most out of life, felt deeply. When he loved someone he never stopped really, even if he couldn't show it properly all the time. He once saved my life because of that."

"Thank you," she tells him, ever so quiet, with misty eyes she's trying to hide. She turns to leave the room but Stefan can't help and add, "You know your mother-- we had a brief meeting. She was busy saving Klaus-- your father-- for your family. And when I saw her phone, she had you as her homepage. The one thing she'd risk everything for, even in a fight she wasn't sure we'd win."

Hope gives him a brilliant smile, leaving in quiet. 

  
  
  


* * *


End file.
